Free Summer of Joy by Ann H. Gabhart

we’re in a big hurry. Maybe next time,” Jocie said before she ran down the sidewalk to Leigh’s car. She hoped Mr. Hammond wasn’t running behind her.
    “Thanks for coming to pick me up,” she told Leigh as she jumped in the car and slammed the door. “Let’s go.”
    Leigh got in and started the car. “What’s the hurry?” she said. “Your teacher looked like he wanted to talk.”
    “I’ve already talked to him enough today. He’s not your normal Hollyhill English teacher. Trust me.”
    “Interview didn’t go well, then?” Leigh pulled out on the road.
    “I escaped in one piece.” Jocie looked back at the school. Mr. Hammond was still standing on the sidewalk watching them drive away.
    “Escaped?” Leigh looked over at her with a sympathetic smile. “That bad, huh?”
    “Yeah. I don’t know. Just kind of weird.” Jocie rubbed her finger up and down the wire coil on her notebook.
    “He’s the guy that took over for Mrs. Wickers, isn’t he?” Leigh didn’t wait for Jocie to answer. “I’ve heard some people talking about him. They say he lived in New York City for a while. Was a writer there before he started teaching.”
    “That’s what he said.” Jocie tried to change the subject. “What kind of cookies are we making?”
    Leigh had laughed again. “I don’t think you want to talk about Mr. New Teacher. I guess I’ll just have to wait and read about him in the Banner .”
    The Banner article had come out the next week. Jocie didn’t know if Mr. Hammond read it or not. He had never said the first word about it to her.
    Jocie looked at the teacher’s picture one more time before she folded the paper and stuck it back in the stack of old papers. That was definitely when things started going bad for her in English class, but she still had no idea how to make it better. None at all. All she could do was look forward to Christmas break and not having to see the man’s face for two whole wonderful weeks.

9
    L eigh couldn’t remember when she’d ever been so excited about Christmas coming. Certainly not since she was a little kid wondering how she’d get anything from Santa Claus since her house didn’t have a chimney, and maybe not even then, because Santa Claus had always ended up putting stuff she needed instead of stuff she wanted under the tree.
    But this year she was getting to play Santa Claus. She’d already bought Stephen Lee a footed sleeper with trains on it, a pair of the cutest blue jeans, and a set of brightly colored wooden blocks. Not that he would care what he got for Christmas this year, but it was fun having a little one to buy for, and not only the baby but Jocie too. While Jocie was several years beyond the Santa Claus age, she was still a kid who believed in the magic of Christmas. Or at least needed to.
    Leigh herself was grabbing on to that magic this year. That feeling of love everywhere as the world celebrated the greatest gift ever given in the form of a tiny baby. People were smiling more. Even the people coming into the clerk’s office to buy their car licenses didn’t grumble quite so much about having to fork over their money to the government in order to keep their cars legal.
    And that morning in the park when a few snowflakes had drifted down, the very air had seemed to be sparkling.
    “Look,” she’d told David who had been waiting at the park to walk with her the way he was every Saturday morning now. She hardly ever even wondered if he’d be there. She expected him to be there. “There must be glitter on the snow. It’s sparkling.”
    She held out her hand to catch one of the snowflakes to show David, but instead of looking at the snowflake on her glove, he kept his eyes on her face as he said, “You’re what’s sparkling. You’re beautiful this morning.”
    Her heart melted faster than the tiny snowflake on her palm, and she felt as if she were spinning in sparkles just like Cinderella after the Fairy Godmother touched her with her